SAVOURY SHORTBREAD

Happy 2015! What a year it will be – filled with fewer croissants, and more quinoa, or so I try to tell myself. To kick off the year I decided I would do the unthinkable – combine sweet and savoury! It was my birthday this week, and at 26 (GAH old age, run for your lives) I decided I needed to at least ATTEMPT to curb my obsession with sweet baked goods. Thus the birth of “savoury shortbread” , or a “glorified cracker”  if you will.

For my diva day I decided to stage a picnic, complete with delightful friends, my famous chocolate mascarpone tart, a pyrotechnic candle that should be illegal, a beautiful cake made by partner-in-culinary-crime, Deanna Dowling, and my new go-to, savoury shortbread biscuits.

Beautiful cake.

For those of you who are frightened by the prospect of combining sweet and savoury – no need to fret. You are getting the best of both worlds. And what’s more, because I was channeling Beyonce and feeling particularly gluttonous , I combined these savoury bikkys with cheese and jam. Holy hell! So if you too wish to channel your inner Beyonce, get ya hands dirrrrty and try the following recipe:

Ingredients:

185g butter

⅓ C icing sugar

1/2 C flour

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp dried rosemary (not ground)

Handful of chopped walnuts

Preheat that unreliable oven of yours to 180 degrees Celsius. Combine all of the ingredients as if you are making stock-standard shortbread. To be the tease that I am, I like to add the rosemary, salt and walnuts at the end – just to keep the mystery alive as to whether the shortbread are going to be sweet or savoury. With the dough, create a log-like formation. You want to make it as compact as humanly possible. Using a sharp knife cut the log into thin slices, place them individually on a baking tray, and biff them into the oven for 15 minutes or so. Done. As my first time was largely experimental, I am of the belief my treaties erred on the thick side. But you know, it was my birthday and equally I’m a greedy guts, so no harm done.